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Issues moving Internet Mail and Addresses to Outlook 2013 (64 bit)

Article ID: 2796528 - View products that this article applies to.

If you are a Small Business customer, find additional troubleshooting and learning resources at the Support for Small Business Support for Small Business
(http://smallbusiness.support.microsoft.com/en-US)
site.

If you've installed Outlook 2013 (64 bit) and are having trouble moving your Internet email or contacts into it, please continue on with this article. If you just need help setting up Outlook, please refer to KB 2758902

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2758902)

When trying to export your Internet email and/or contacts from Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail to Outlook (64 bit) you encounter the error:

Either there is no default mail client or the current mail client cannot fulfill the messaging request. Please run Microsoft Outlook and set it as the default mail client.

Followed by:
The export could not be performed.
An error occurred while initializing MAPI.

Outlook 2013 no longer supports the importing of email and addresses (contacts) from Outlook Express 4.x, 5.x, 6.x or Windows Mail directly into it. Lean more about discontinued features.

(http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/discontinued-features-and-modified-functionality-in-outlook-2013-HA102606403.aspx)

This only leaves you with the option of exporting email and addresses from Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail, and into Outlook 2013. However, the export option has a limitation. Outlook Express and Windows Live Mail are unable to export to Outlook if the 64-bit version of Microsoft Office or Microsoft Outlook is installed.

To export your email and contacts from Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail, and into Outlook 2013, you must uninstall the 64-bit version of Office or Outlook and then install the 32-bit version. Alternatively, you can migrate your data on another computer that has a 32-bit version of Outlook. The 32-bit version can be Outlook 2013 or earlier.

Workarounds

These are the two workarounds to help get your email and contacts into your local copy of Outlook:

Export your mail from Windows Mail using another computer that has an Outlook (32-bit) version installed, then move the resulting .pst file to the Outlook 2013 (64-bit) client. The default location of your Outlook 2013 Data files can be found in: Introduction to Outlook Data Files
(http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/introduction-to-outlook-data-files-pst-and-ost-HA102749465.aspx?CTT=1)
Uninstall Office 2013 (64-bit) and install Office 2013 (32-bit), and then export from Live Mail to the Outlook 2013 (32 bit) version using the information listed in: KB 980534
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980534)

Note: Use the steps listed in KB 2739501
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2739501)
to remove Office 2013 or Outlook 2013.